The best cardio for weight loss – A HIIT workout routine to burn fat quickly
A HIIT workout routine to burn fat quickly
If your current cardio routine is ‘easy’ for you, then perhaps you’re doing it wrong. Hold on a minute matey, I’m not talking about aerobics, pump classes or anything else ending in ‘class’, but rather, I’m talking about the zombie-like crowd of gym-goers that consistently leash themselves to the nearest elliptical/treadmill or any other piece of ‘fat burning’ equipment that is hooked up to Pay TV, to run at a steady-state for 45mins or longer.
If you are training like this 5 days a week, and want to lose some body-fat, then you need to stop and think about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.
Long distance running will make you waif thin–and you’ll lose a lot of muscle mass in the process.
How I see it, long steady-state cardio is good for
#1 Marathon runners
#2 Growing your thighs and calves disproportionately to the rest of your body
#3 Eventually sending your fat loss efforts into a plateau (if this is a goal).
#4 Spending a third of your life running towards a TV screen that never gets any closer (joke).
Perhaps that was a little harsh, but I’m allowed to be. After all, I’m a HUGE advocate for High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and besides that, it’s my soap-box, and I’m allowed to stand on it.
What is HIIT exactly?
It’s an exercise strategy that is intended to improve performance with short training sessions and is beneficial to burn fat quickly in a short and intense workout.
Olympic sprinter Shawn Crawford is proof that HIIT training will keep that body fat at bay
What else makes HIIT so sexy?
#1 You can be in and out of the gym in 20-30mins
#2 You will burn fat for 24hours following your workout.
#3 You’ll spare a lot more of you hard-earned muscle
#4 You’ll be able to brag to your friends that you’re trialing a wicked training technique you found on the internets (Awesome!)
Still don’t believe me?
A study by Gibala demonstrated, 2.5 hours of HIIT training produced similar muscle changes to 10.5 hours of endurance training and similar endurance performance benefits. According to a study by King, HIIT increases the resting metabolic rate (RMR) for the following 24 hours due to excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, and may improve maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max) more effectively than doing only, long aerobic workouts.
‘…If you can chat to the person on the elliptical next to you, then you’re not working hard enough.‘
What’s the best cardio workout for fat loss?
The premise is simple. You rest/sprint at a 2:1 ratio for a set amount of time and repeat until your spleen falls out of you.
When I say ‘SPRINT’, I mean at 90% or more of your maximum. If you can chat to the person on the elliptical next to you, then you’re not working hard enough.
An example HIIT routine
Can be performed on Elliptical/Stepper/Bike/Treadmill
Warmup 5mins 40% max
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Sprint 30seconds 90% max
Rest/walk 60 seconds at 40% max
(Repeat for 15minutes)
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Cool down 5mins
By the end of a HIIT workout, you should be sweating like a mofo with your lungs ready to punch you in the face.
Results after a month of HIIT
You’ll have kicked your fat burning into overdrive by about the 5th workout in and you’ll be well on your way to the leanest physique you’ve ever experienced (as long as you’re diet is in check of course).
Give it a try, HIIT will definitely help you burn fat quickly.
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